April 29 in freethought history…

April 29, 2006Â -Â Economist John Kenneth Galbraith dies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 97. Born in Canada, Galbraith spent his adult life in the United States, where his influence extended to the social and political: he was a speechwriter and advisor to JFK and other prominent liberal politicians, and he served as Ambassador to India. He received numerous awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he was named Humanist of the Year in 1985 by the American Humanist Association. “I have managed most of my life to exclude religious speculation from my mode of thought. I’ve found that, on the whole, it adds very little to economics.”

April 29, 2014 – The “Openly Secular” coalition is announced, a cooperative effort involving the Richard Dawkins Foundation, the Secular Coalition for America, the Secular Student Alliance and the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. The mission of Open Secular is “to eliminate discrimination and increase acceptance by getting secular people â€“ including atheists, freethinkers, agnostics, humanists and nonreligious people â€“ to be open about their beliefs.”